The present invention relates generally to harvesting trees, and more particularly to a novel tree-felling apparatus to be suspended in the arm of a crane of a vehicle.
In the timber industry trees are processed in stages into trunks or assorted timber. When these stages are mechanised--in the first place felling, lopping, marking for cross-cutting and cross-cutting--equivalent capacity is required in the various devices in order to achieve maximum production.
In this respect the felling operation has been the most difficult to solve--both as a replacement for manual felling when the work is performed in separate operations and in combination with other mechanised processing.
Due to their weight or complicated construction, felling units known hithereto have been unable to fulfil the demands for capacity and, furthermore, they require a special crane to operate them. The known felling units are also compulsorily manoeuvrable, which contributes to increased weight and complicates the construction further in view of the necessity for special operating members and stand parts. Furthermore, said known units are provided with special gripper means designed to grip the stump part to serve as counter-support during felling. This also contributes to increased weight and complicated construction, besides the cut having to be made at an unacceptably high level. See, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,799.